


A Set of Deceitful Scoundrels

by amyfortuna



Series: Silmread Ficlets [6]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Double Drabble Set, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9826232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: Four moments in the conspiracy.





	

**Merry**

Tiptoeing hastily into the study, Merry made a beeline for Bilbo's desk. There, the pen still warm from where Bilbo had put it down for a moment, lay the book he had been working on for years. Spidery handwriting sprawled across the page, thin but neat. He was clearly referring to a weather-beaten old notebook, battered and torn, for it lay open too, on the desk beside the fair copy. 

It was to this old notebook that Merry directed his attention. One ear cocked in the direction of the door, he kept a hand on the page Bilbo had been working from, and flipped forward through the stained pages, looking for any hints or clues to what the Ring might be, or references to Bilbo disappearing. There were notes about an Elvenking, something called the Arkenstone, but long before Merry was close to being able to read any great amount, he heard Bilbo's footsteps coming back along the passageway. 

Quickly, he dropped the pages back into position, smoothed them down, and slipped quietly out the other door, just as Bilbo entered. "Now, where was I?" Merry heard him say. "Ah yes! Laketown! Such a nasty cold I had then!"

**Pippin**

"So tell me about the famous Belladonna," Pippin asked his grandfather one day, as they sat companionably over tea and crumpets in the ancestral hole. 

"Belladonna!" Adalgrim Took said. "She was my aunt, you know. Famed not only for her beauty, but also for her wild streak. Even for a Took, she was an adventurous lass. Some say she met with Elves, and she was certainly acquainted with that old wizard Gandalf." He took a sip of his tea, then set the cup down, giving Pippin a pointed look from under his bushy eyebrows. "There were those what said she went to Rivendell itself, that she consorted with the elf-prince there, and then she gave it all up to come home and settle down with Bungo Baggins!" 

"Surely the bit about the elf-prince is nonsense, though," Pippin said. 

Adalgrim shook his head. "Aye, no doubt. Bilbo Baggins may have had a wild streak of his own, there's no denying, and finally run off into the Blue, but he was fully half a Baggins, my lad, fully half a Baggins, and that means he liked his home comforts. Whenever he is, you can bet he's got a kettle on!" 

**Fredegar**

"Merry," Fredegar said, coming into the room, "what clothes of Frodo's are you packing, and what are you leaving behind?"

Merry turned from the satchel he was sorting clothes into. "We're going to travel light," he said. "So have your pick of any of these, and we'll explain to Frodo later that you're going to pretend to be him when he goes. That way people will believe he's still here for a while, especially if we decide to head off into the Old Forest."

"I think that's mad," Fredegar said. "You'll be lost in a day if you go that way, and who will save you then? The trees of the Forest hate everything that moves, and hobbits most of all." 

"Let's not have this discussion again, not right now anyway," Merry said. "It's Frodo's decision in the end, so put your arguments to him when the time comes!"

"Very well," Fredegar said, sighing. "I just want to see you all back again, safe and sound, and not any day too long from now either!"

"You will!" Merry said. "Four of us together will be better than one or even two, in the Wild. We'll be back safe, you'll see." 

**Sam**

"So, my boy," Bilbo said, settling down in his chair by the fire, "I suppose it's time I told you about my greatest treasure."

Frodo sat up from the chair on the other side of the fire, where he had been deeply immersed in a book for the afternoon. He picked up the mug of tea Bilbo had placed on the table a moment ago, and frowned. "Do you mean something you brought back from the Dwarf Kingdom?"

Bilbo hemmed and hawed a little. "In a way," he said after a moment. "But I came upon this in no dwarven hoard, but in the lairs of the goblins and a darker creature, Gollum." 

"What a perfectly horrid name!" Frodo cried. 

"Well, he wasn't too nice a creature, either," Bilbo said. "You see, it was this way. I got lost in the tunnels, the dwarves left me behind, and I woke in darkness..."

Just outside, the sound of voices drifted up through the fireplace and out the chimney. Through a trick of sound, Sam could hear every word spoken in that room clear as clear from his vantage point in the garden. He settled in for a long evening of 'investigating.'


End file.
